¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14 ESV)

Let’s face it, it can be hard to bear with one another. People can frustrate and exasperate us. It is often hard to have a compassionate heart, to be kind, to show humility, meekness and patience. We come home from a long day and complain about others. Being human, means being frustrated.

But this is in no way what we are called to. Others should not experience from us anything other than the love of Christ. Yes, that can be hard. It can take a supreme amount of effort to even be civil at times. But beyond just civil, we need to show God’s love to all people. This does not mean we have to be door mats and simply take any abuse others want to put out. But standing firm does not necessarily mean we must be harsh.

The Lord forgave us and we too must forgive others. This is one of the most fervent instructions in scripture. Yet, we struggle with it daily. Maybe the problem is not others, but ourselves. We need to look inwardly to our foibles first, asking forgiveness and not forgetting to forgive others with the same issues.